Wednesday, March 21, 2007

For years gastronomes have trailed around France and Italy in search of delicacies. Now food tours are springing up all over Britain. Bibi van der Zee tries the cheese, beer and pork pies of Leicestershire

Monday, March 19, 2007

What have chip-and-pin bank cards, Jack Johnson, supermarkets espousing environmental causes and the website www.last.fm got in common? Not a lot except that they, and dozens of other items, have been described in the newspapers in recent weeks as "the best thing since sliced bread". This is curious. We live in an age of unprecedented innovation, yet the standard benchmark for judging excellence is not the jet engine or television or the internet, but plain old sliced bread. It is a marvel of viral marketing that this phrase is known all over the world, and it is no surprise that this month saw a key figure in its development recognised. Legislators at Little Rock, Arkansas, passed a resolution honouring Richard Otto Rohwedder, son of the inventor and, as a 13-year-old boy, the person who actually pushed the first loaf through an automated cutter in 1928. Senator Shane Broadway, sponsor of the resolution, observed that it would be "appropriate to recognise his part in history, culture and our society" and added: "All of us could not live without sliced bread." It is possible to disagree with that statement while acknowledging the longevity of the invention. Mr Rohwedder, who died in February aged 92, would have been delighted by a BBC news item pointing out that the freshly baked loaves in supermarkets are now selling for 89p or less, while Warburtons Seeded Batch sliced loaves enjoy premium status, costing up to £1.40p each. This is clearly the best thing for sliced bread since ...

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Thousands of sandwiches were recalled from schools, hospitals and universities yesterday amid fears they could be contaminated with listeria, a potentially fatal food bug.The Food Standards Agency removed the sandwiches after listeria contamination was found in samples during routine tests carried out on behalf of Ashford local authority in Kent.

Friday, March 16, 2007

The humble pizza has come a long way from its 19th century origins as an oven-baked Neapolitan favourite. But the basic idea remains the same: bread-type base, gooey topping, a sprinkling of black pepper and get stuck in. Thick crust, thin crust, stuffed crust. But never upper crust.Now a New York restaurant has decided to turn the pizza into a culinary marvel by smothering it in caviar and lobster and charging customers $1,000

Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Michelin guide announced yesterday it would publish for the first time in Japan, generating an outburst of culinary chauvinism from the country's chefs, bristling at the prospect of being told how to prepare sushi by French gourmets.The Michelin Guide Tokyo will be the first edition published outside Europe and the US, and the organisation has already dispatched a team of undercover Japanese and European inspectors to assess the top restaurants in the Japanese capital. Although Michelin stressed that restaurants had nothing to fear from the guide, which rates cooking, service and decor, chefs were suspicious. Some suggested that "outsiders" working for the famous bible of gastronomy were not qualified to pontificate on the finer points of such delicacies as raw fish.

A major US-based banana producer is to pay a fine of nearly £13m after admitting it made protection payments to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group implicated in human rights abuses and cocaine smuggling.In a deal with the US justice department, announced last night, Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty to one charge of conducting business with a terrorist group, agreeing to a fine of $25m.The settlement resolves a lengthy justice department investigation into the company's financial dealings with both right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels in Colombia.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The man whose company popularised generic new world wines and introduced the high-alcohol-content Thunderbird to generations of British teenagers has died aged 97.Ernest Gallo, the last of the two Gallo brothers to die, co-founded E&J Winery in 1933, building it into the world's second largest wine company.It popularised grape varieties such as burgundy and chardonnay and is credited with creating an international market for Californian wines under the name Ernest and Julio Gallo

Bottled mineral water is now out-selling cola in London, a report reveals today, and health conscious consumers are helping to fuel a continued growth in the soft drinks market, opting increasingly for still products such as water and juices rather than fizzy substitutes.The research by the manufacturer Britvic finds pure juice, "sports" drinks and blended beverages known as smoothies have shown the fastest percentage growth in the take-home sector. And sales of water have risen by 11% to achieve £643m in sales.

Allegra McEvedy, who from today will write a weekly recipe for G2, describes her journey from the River Cafe in London, via Robert De Niro's New York restaurant, to her own chain of award-winning, super-healthy eateries.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

When the organic pasty squared up against the Big Mac, it was never going to be pretty. In the wake of Prince Charles's recent tirade against the Big Mac, defenders of McDonald's have levelled that the burger in question contains less salt and fat and fewer calories than some of the products in the Prince's Duchy Originals range. One analysis of the brand's Organic Ginger Biscuits gasped that each biscuit is higher in calories than a two-finger KitKat.

Monday, March 05, 2007

SHOPPING for cheese has never been high on my list of romantic things to do. It can be fun, but I'd never thought of it as a bonding experience. Now, however, I'm going to treasure each moment I spend with my husband, mooching around the cheese heaven that is Ian Mellis, or Valvona and Crolla, because I've learned that the simple act of buying...

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Paul Gayler, executive chef at the Lanesborough Hotel, can't get enough of it. And neither, it seems, can the rest of us. It has recently been claimed that there are now more cheeses made in the UK than in France, and it's true that an enormous number of farmhouse varieties are appearing on the market. Sales of goat's cheese are on the increase, and classics such as parmesan and brie are becoming staples to rival cheddar and stilton. This all adds up to a delicious cheeseboard, but Gayler believes that we should be more adventurous. "Cheese's unique characteristics in cooking are too often overlooked," he says. "Why not pair blue cheese with white fish, or cheddar with a lobster bisque? Or use goat's cheese to make a pesto sauce?"

THERE was a time that schoolboys would do almost anything to escape "girly" cooking lessons. But, inspired by celebrity chefs and the rise of foodie culture, there has been a massive increase in boys taking the subject in Scottish classrooms. New figures from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) reveal a rise of almost 60% in three years in the number of boys taking the vocational courses designed to propel them towards professional kitchens. Old-fashioned home economics - which combined traditional "housewife" skills of cooking and needlework - was revamped in 1999. That, and the rise of role models such as Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, has given the subject a remarkable boost.

It's 2am, you're in Hong Kong, and you fancy some bacon and eggs. Andy Lynes knows where to find them.A jet-lagged stomach could have you craving raw fish for breakfast in Tokyo or a midnight snack of pad thai in Bangkok. The sign of a truly great city is the opportunity for round-the-clock dining. So, wherever you find yourself awake with an appetite, there will always be somewhere nearby to satisfy your hunger.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Oh, the modesty of the Swedes. A few weeks into my campaign for table-water sustainability I found myself at Upper Glas (a glorious pun celebrating the removal of the Swedish restaurant Glas from Borough Market to the site of what used to be Lola’s on Upper Street) and demanding, as ever, to know what kind of bottled water they had.